COVID019: Maldives’ records additional recovery

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) on Monday, confirmed the recovery of an additional COVID-19 patient, bringing the total number of recoveries to 31.

Speaking at a press conference held at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), HPA’s epidemiologist Dr Ibrahim Afzal confirmed that case MAV95 had recovered.

Amid the ongoing state of public health, emergency declared on March 12, the administration first imposed the lockdown across the Greater Male’ Region on April 15, after a Maldivian national living in the capital tested positive for COVID-19. The lockdown has since been extended multiple times, with the latest development placing its deadline on this coming Thursday, May 14.

Following the lockdown, a number of locals, from various regions across the archipelago, found themselves stranded in the capital area. Authorities have since begun issuing authorisation for those with pressing needs to leave Male’ and return to their home islands.

The Maldives presently records 862 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 828 are active. The country has experienced three fatalities.

Capital city Malé, one of the most densely populated places in the world, has recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 since it recorded its first local transmission of the virus on April 15.

On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 4.2 million people and claimed over 285,450 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 1.5 million people have recovered.